In the capacity of a greenhand Roustabout you are going to work under the close supervision until the time, when your practical skills and knowledge of the most responsible Roustabout operations on offshore oil rig are in place so you could be allowed to do your job on the rig floor with minimum supervision.

In order to be cleared to work as Offshore Roustabout, a fresher also needs to pass some safety training and get familiarized with offshore safety procedures. After you received enough of hours of training and feel ready to go through safety tests, it's time to submit your application to get properly certified. Even at this early stage it is important realize that offshore oil rig career is in fact all about certifications, and that process never ends.

As soon as your Roustabout job skills are estimated as sufficient by senior crew members, you keep working as Roustabout, but with the due attitude you may expect the fast promotion to, say, Roughneck, Motorman, Assistant Crane Operator, or Assistant Rig Electrician or even Rig Mechanic position with adequate increase of salary. There are lots of promotion opportunities on offshore oil rigs, and many of the people currently holding supervisory, administrative, and engineering positions once started from the very low as greenhand Roustabouts with absolutely no previous experience.

Once you had had a chance to get employed and work successfully for at least one time as Offshore Roustabout, you've got the most important thing for worker in offshore industry, the experience. Experienced Offshore Roustabouts and Roughnecks practically have no problem getting a new job, once the work on previous project is over. But such candidates are being asked for proof of that experience as a condition of getting job. Offshore Roustabout, who has got different additional certifications would be given hand over the competitors.

You can find in the mass media lots of advertising of the offshore vacancies by different oil drilling companies or by their authorized recruiters that look for a wide range of trained specialists, including Roustabouts, with brief descriptions of responsibilities, functions, and duties, as well as salaries and benefits, associated with each offshore position. To be successful in the search of job like Offshore Roustabout, you shouldn't mind travelling, because employment opportunities may be located at the given moment quite at a distance from the place, where you reside in Louisiana or the state of Texas in the USA.

The easiest way to find an offshore job of Roustabout on oil rig must be either through someone you know already works on oil production platform or drillship, or through a specialized offshore employment search agency, which you could easily find on the Internet.

On offshore rigs under the jurisdiction of India rig workers like Roustabout normally would work 28 successive days without holidays, and then enjoy 28 days of a prolonged leave on mainland. The permanent 24 hours non stop operation of offshore oil rig is ensured by the staff substituting each other working by shifts, shift duration being 12 hours. The labor laws of other countries may mandate work order, different from India. For example, in the Middle East, you could be asked to work two months, followed by one month of rest onshore, while if you're lucky to get a job on offshore platforms of Norway in the North Sea, your work schedule, whether it is Roustabout/Roughneck position or other, will be 1 month offshore and 3 months at home, i. e. you work only 1/4 part of the entire year, while getting salary for the full length of 12 months. The salary Offshore Roustabout gets, differ, depending on the company, the level of seniority, specific project, oil rig location etc. On Indian oil rigs workers in a position of Offshore Roustabout could count to earn somewhere between Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 per month.

Some crews on offshore oil rigs are being compensated better than the others, including low end entry-level positions like Roustabout. Oil companies go as far, as offering relief periods in addition to regular leave periods (day offs) for the staff, working offshore. Also they provide free transportation to the place of job at the high seas and the delivery back to the shore by helicopter. Sometimes they compensate airfare for the worker to fly to their home during leave and back.